My Toddler has a TV in his Room and I'm Not Sorry

I make no apology for the fact that my toddler has a TV in his room for one very simple reason:

Kids love TV and parents love that kids love TV.

I mean, I know I do.

I don’t view moderate TV consumption as a lazy parenting thing; I view it as a sanity-preserving thing.

My son loves TV just like every toddler. I can pretend that he only ever watches TV on weekends or that the shows he watches are purely educational but I’d be totally lying. While I indeed limit the amount of TV my toddler views on any given day, there are specific times I allow – heck, downright encourage TV viewing.

In our household, we allow moderate television viewing at bedtime and on weekend mornings because well, it makes life easier for all of us.

BooBoo goes to bed at 8 p.m. sharp every night – yep, even on weekends, holidays, full moons and leap years. We don’t send him to bed like clockwork because we’re such awesome parents, oh heck no. We do it because we have to; he needs the sleep. After bath time, book time and cuddle time, if BooBoo’s especially tired and cranky I’m known to bust out a favorite Peep and the Big Wide World DVD. I turn the volume way down, shut off the light and get my grumpy toddler all nice and cozy. Usually within minutes my boy is off to sleep and there’s peace in the Mommyfriend household once again. Winning!

That’s not to say every bedtime goes down without a fight (if only). Sometimes 8 p.m. rolls around and Peep isn’t over (the horror). Sure, there’s opposition and begging, but as long as I stand my ground and allow BooBoo to push the big red power button off for himself, we can usually end the night on speaking terms.

As far as weekend mornings go, I’m taking them back! Ever since BooBoo finally began sleeping through the night I made the decision to preserve my sleep whenever possible. Thanks to my toddler’s TV I can.

Picture it: Saturday morning, 5:30 a.m., I awake to a messy haired boy breathing on my face. He’s ready to party – I’m not. Please, I stayed up way too late watching the Real Housewives marathon and I’m freaking tired. I stumble into his bedroom, trip on a Hot Wheel and pop in a Disney DVD. I stumble back to my room, trip on the same Hot Wheel and fall into a comatose sleep for another 90 glorious minutes until I hear the dreaded, “IT’S O-VER!” from that little person down the hall. That’s my cue to get up and start the day and why not, it’s 7 a.m. on a Saturday and by my toddler’s clock, the day is half over.

I don’t see anything wrong with a TV in my toddler’s room so long as it’s utilized responsibly. As with all things, moderation and parental guidance are key.

TV keeps us both a little more sane and with a toddler, I’ll take my sanity wherever I can find it.

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